It was a productive year for helping out in the community.
The biggest and most rewarding thing I did as the CAC chair was help organize the first East Raleigh Community Day event along with Ronneil Robinson, Raleigh Police, Raleigh Parks, WakeMed, and others. It was so much fun seeing everyone out and having a good time. I had a silly grin on my face all day long.
Part of the Community Day celebrations included the grand opening of the Police Department Field Office in the Raleigh Boulevard Food Lion shopping center. This was the result of an initiative I took two years ago to work with the city and the property owner to get it done. Now the shopping center is thriving, new businesses moving in, and the neighborhood has a nice local place to shop.
I finally got fed up with all of the non-functioning streetlights in the area and spent two hours one night reporting them all to Progress Energy. Over two dozen streetlights were repaired thanks to my reports. Unfortunately there are always more to be fixed, but it was a good start.
It was a time I did a lot of talks to other volunteer groups. I gave a presentation to the Raleigh Neighborhood Exchange about ways to connect with your membership. It was the first time I’d gone to the Exchange and boy, was I glad to have gone. It was great seeing so many engaged citizens there. I wish I had had more time to meet them all.
After the Exchange, I was asked to give the same presentation to Citizen’s Leadership Institute. I spoke to a group of a dozen future leaders and greatly enjoyed it.
At the CAC level, I invited Mayor Charles Meeker to speak to the CAC about upcoming plans for New Bern Avenue and Capital Boulevard. While he was there, Mayor Meeker made an offhand comment about the school board, and since it was a friendly crowd I didn’t even think about it. The news media picked up on it, though, and for the next three weeks the East CAC was fodder for the newspaper.
This year the East CAC became the first in the city to stream its meetings live over the Internet. This allowed many folks not able to be present to keep up with our meetings remotely. Now other CACs are following our lead.
The city began two major studies on the main East CAC corridors: Capital Boulevard and New Bern Avenue. The kickoff workshops were well attended for both, with the Capital meeting drawing close to 300 participants and the New Bern one over 100. There is a lot of excitement around these two projects and high hopes for their outcomes.
I was featured in the media many times this year regarding CAC matters. In May I was interviewed by NBC17 about Club Envy. A month later, my blogging about the graffiti on the Beltline attracted an interview with WTVD. Then when some boneheads fired shots near my neighborhood I was on NBC17 and WRAL discussing it.
When my neighbors complained again about the debris that washes into Edmund Street from the poorly-designed drainage uphill of it, I decided to persuade the city to fix it. After finding out whom to call at the city, stormwater engineers surveyed the site, came up with a plan to fix the issue, and a few weeks later put in a new drain pipe and landscaping. In the several storms since the work was done there have been no debris issues. I can’t help but smile every time I walk through that area.
At our kids’ school, Conn Elementary, my family and I spent a Saturday afternoon thinning out plants in front of the school. We also dug up some plants that were crowding the bike rack, making it much easier for the kids to get their bikes in and out.
Inside the school, I did more GPS talks to the fifth-graders. It’s always exciting to me to see the kids get interested in something I’m telling them. Some of those kids are lightning quick with their answers, too. I’ve been impressed at how smart many are.
I’m already looking forward to what next year will bring!